a) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of metallurgic materials processing and is directed to a method for the manufacture of semifinished metal products such as strip or wire from metal materials which have a high melting point and are difficult to shape. The method is applicable, for instance, for the production of soft-magnetic strip from FeSi alloys, for the production of strip from FeCo base alloys, and for the production of cobalt strip or cobalt wire.
b) Description of the Related Art
Some metals and many alloys with desirable technical properties can only be brought to the desired semifinished form, if at all, by means of costly shaping. For example, it is difficult to produce wire from highly pure cobalt by means of shaping. Problems also arise in the shaping of FeSi alloys with more than 4% silicon to form semifinished product used as soft-magnetic materials. In general, those alloys which are difficult to shape are formed chiefly by transition metals, especially alloys having ordered lattice structures.
It is also known to produce metal semifinished products in the form of strip or wire directly from the melt by one of the quick solidification processes. However, this method is difficult to use when the material to be processed has a high melting point (roughly greater than 1400.degree. C.), since the equipment for quick solidification in this case must be produced from work materials which are very expensive and difficult to work with and/or which are prone to rapid wear. This results in high manufacturing costs.